Over the years, Tesla’s focus on safety in vehicles has made the brand’s EVs get multiple safety awards and top ratings across various markets. This includes local organisations such as ANCAP, which has given five-star ratings to the lineup.
Tesla has now shared information that Tesla’s vision system found in the vehicles will help in potentially deploying airbags faster when the car is involved in a collision.
Replying to a post from a Tesla driver in the US who shared that the upcoming free software update for Tesla vehicles will include software to allow camera vision from the car to deploy airbags and restrained occupants in a crash, Tesla said:
“We are feeding information from Tesla Vision into the airbag system so that when an impact occurs, the airbag deploys faster. The airbags do not deploy based on Tesla Vision alone”.
This is one of the various safety features included in the update, along with an update to drowsiness detection in the car, which senses lane drifting by drivers and prompts them to use FSD supervised to help stay focused on the road.
This update was spotted in the upcoming 2025.32.3 update by Tesla app code expert, greentheonly, and shared on X.
It has also been reported that the feature has already been rolled out with one owner sharing the message they received while driving.
The message reads: “Lane drift detected. Let FSD assist so you can stay focused.”
Tesla’s vehicles have won multiple safety awards and have received recognition from multiple safey organisations.
In 2022, Tesla’s Model S scored the highest overall safety score of any vehicle ever tested by Euro NCAP under the then strictest testing 2022 protocol.
In 2023, the Tesla Model Y won the 2023 safety award with a “near-perfect safety rating” off the back of its active safety features, achieving a score of 98% from Euro NCAP.
At that time, Euro NCAP secretary general Michiel van Ratingen said: “We must give congratulations to Tesla and Model Y for achieving a truly outstanding, near-perfect safety rating in Euro NCAP’s tests.”
“Tesla have committed themselves to a very high level of safety performance in crash prevention and protection, we hope to see them continue to aspire to that goal in the future.”
In 2024, Tesla launched its refreshed Model 3, which scored highly once again in Australia, receiving 5 5-star ANCAP rating earlier this year.
In May 2025, Carla Hoorweg, ANCAP CEO said: “The upgraded Tesla Model 3 has again delivered all-round safety performance, with standout results for child occupant and vulnerable road user protection, making it a reassuring choice for families,”.
With Tesla continuing to roll out safety features via regular over-the-air (OTA) software updates, its vision system feedback loop to improve the overall active safety will reassure owners that they are safer on the road than ever before.
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.